Nobel laureate James Allison to speak at biomedical sciences seminar series Feb. 23

The Department of Biomedical Sciences and the Biomedical Graduate Student Association are excited to announce the next event in their Seminar Series. On Feb. 23, 2022, Dr. James P. Allison, 2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology, will give an online talk to the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences entitled “Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Therapy: New insights into therapeutic mechanisms.”

Regental Professor and Chair of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, Dr. Allison was born in Alice, Texas. He studied at the University of Texas in Austin, and he received his doctoral degree there in 1973. He has since dedicated his career to studying cancer.

As a statement on the Nobel Prize website put it, “By stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells James Allison and (2018 co-laureate) Tasuku Honjo have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy. In 1994–1995, Allison studied a known protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realized the potential of releasing the brake and thereby unleashing our immune cells to attack tumors. He then developed this concept into a new approach for treating patients.”